reclaim annually a certain number, and supply them to purchasers at the
fixed rate of thirty shillings a head.

We landed on Hog Island where Captain Sulivan's herd of eleven hundred
cattle (besides a number of horses) had been kept during the winter,
supported chiefly by the tussock grass fringing the shore, which they had
cropped so closely that, being a perennial plant of slow growth, two
years' rest would be required to enable it to regain its former vigour.
Large patches of this magnificent grass*--Dactylis caespitosa of
botanists--along the shores of the mainland have been destroyed by the
cattle in their fondness for the nutritious base of the stem, a small
portion of which, as thick as the little finger, has a pleasant taste and
may be eaten by man, to whom it has occasionally furnished the principal
means of subsistence when wandering in the wilds of these inhospitable
islands. Great numbers of upland geese (Chloephaga magellanica) chiefly
in small flocks, were feeding on various berries and the tender grass.
Although seldom molested on this island, they became rather wary after a
few shots had been fired--still a sufficient number to answer our purpose
were procured without much difficulty. Unlike the kelp goose, which has a
very rank taste, derived from its feeding chiefly upon the filmy seaweeds
covering the tidal rocks, the upland goose is excellent eating, and
formed a welcome addition to our fare on board. Loggerheads and other
ducks, cormorants, and grebes, were swimming about among the beds of
kelp, and oyster-catchers of two kinds, gulls, kelp-geese, and many other
birds frequented the shores.

(*Footnote. For a full account of this useful plant, the growth of which
in Britain in certain favourable maritime situations has been attempted
on a large scale, I would refer to Botany of the Antarctic Voyage by Dr.
J.D. Hooker page 384 and plates 136 and 137.)